A Look At Verizon's Push-To-Talk Service

Wireless

A good piece by Mike Langberg looking at Verizon Wireless’s new push-to-talk offering, comparing it to Nextel’s offering. It sounds like it does some things better (having a “presence” list so you know who’s available) and some things worse (slower connect times). I also agree that the pricing is way too high (though, that’s no surprise with a wireless carrier offering a new service). They want $20/month just for PTT and if you’re contacting groups instead of individuals it’s got a per minute per user charge – which can add up pretty quickly. While I can see how PTT would be nice to have, I think carriers have misread the market, based on Nextel’s success. Nextel focused on businesses where PTT made perfect sense. Those people are willing to pay extra for it. Verizon Wireless (and the other carriers) seem to think that just about anyone values PTT the same way – which is simply not true. When taken to a general audience, consumers won’t be willing to pay nearly as much (and I won’t even bother discussing interoperability questions…).